Designing Apps: The Best App You Can Make

I Want to Be an App Designer
If I didn’t have to eat, drink or sleep, I would spend all day creating apps. I might do some fun ones like the very popular Band Name Generator app or the lesser known Have2P app that notes a user’s GPS location and finds the closest bathroom. I would try to avoid designing apps like the How to Text a Girl app or 101 Pick Up Lines app, because that’s a waste of time, but I might need to do a few of those just to earn some money to pay my rent. How much money could I earn? That depends.

In March, the Wall Street Journal began a series called The Business of Apps: “The global apps business is expected to make $25 billionin revenue this year, up 62% from a year ago, according to Gartner. To put that in perspective, movie theaters sold less than half that dollar amount at the box office in 2012.”

Does that number shock you? If not, this will. According to the WSJ: “The average smartphone user spends two hours a day with apps, more than double the time spent two years earlier, according to Flurry Analytics.”

Brian Wood, the author of eight books including Using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, has counseled many brand named clients including Nordstrom, REI, Boeing, Starbucks, and Nintendo and is a recognized expert on Adobe software programs, teaching several courses. He currently has some available at HOW Design University including Photoshop, Edge Reflow, Muse, Edge Animate and more.

Using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite is Wood’s newest book, a comprehensive, enthusiastic, easy-to-follow ebook on designing apps that includes everything from the introduction to Digital Publishing Suite, which leads into Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) Workflow. With that he explains the concept “What is an App Made of,” and how to “Create the Folio in Adobe InDesign,” then: testing, adding interactivity, importing HTML, sharing, building, submitting and resources for learning more. It’s fast-paced App-tivity. Wood’s book is immediately downloadable, guiding the reader through everything APP — conceptualizing, workflow, creation, publishing, and once it’s finished, the app enthusiast can start again. That is the best part of this book. There is no limit to app creation.In fact, developing apps doesn’t always have to be for monetary gain, most probably don’t make money at all, they are used for marketing purposes. Many companies have press kit apps. Designers have portfolio apps. If I was an app creator, I would market myself with an App-A-Month promotion. I would try to do something clever like digital design studio, USTWO, did with their “stupidly entertaining” MouthOff™. This real-time mouth simulator phone app should be a must at late night work sessions.

There are 45 illustrated MouthOffs™ and it’s optimized for both iPhone and Android. I know you’re going to download it now. Do yourself one better, create a “stupidly entertaining” app and invest in Wood’s new book —Using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.

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